Teaser Tuesday

The Princess Bride
William Goldman

"Westley had instructed her on how to behave if this happened, and she followed his words now: she spread her arms and spread her fingers and forced herself into the position resembling that of a dead-man's float in swimming, all this because Westley had told her to because the more she could spread herself, the slower she would sink."

Westley? Westley?  All these years I've watched The Princess Bride, and I never knew there was a "t" in the middle of his name! I've been calling Cary Elwes "Wesley" for most of my life. Sheesh.

As you can probably guess, the book fills some gaps left behind by the movie. A must-read for fans of the movie (and a good one for everyone else, too).

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Give it a Tri

If I keep posting these grand plans on my blog, I'm bound to stick to at least one of them, right?

So Chad and I, in the absence of a monthly running club race (*waves frantically at the WTRC* We miss you!), have slacked off on pretty much everything. I run three miles about once a week. On the upside, at least I can still run three miles.

We've contemplated doing some upcoming 5 and 10Ks, but the problem with this plan is that all these races cost about $30 each, and that's before we go to the expo to be tempted by all the fancy-schmancy running stuff. Not good.

So! After considering our options and the current state of our sanity very carefully, we've decided to start training for the Austin Triathlon, coming on Labor Day. This gives us plenty of time to work on our swimming and cycling, not to mention budget for the race (although it will be cheaper to do this one race than to do all of the five we were considering). And I'll have a good reason to go use that swimming pool in the university gym that I'm already paying for anyway, but haven't had the courage to use until now.

Any triathletes out there? What should I do first?

Catch Me

My mother's name is Annette. Trust me, we've gotten plenty of net-related jokes out of that over the years (so much that when we taught the gospel of Matthew in Bible bowl a few years ago, I used my poor mother as an illustration for the children to remember that the apostles were "casting a net into the water". It worked, too).

Once upon a time, the minster was giving a sermon series on grace. One week, he told us that we are not under law, but under grace. The next week, when talking about the nature of grace, the minister said, "Grace is a net." Which led my father to make a rather elaborate joke about my mother being in charge-- We're "under" grace, Grace = Annette, etc. I think the minister laughed because he was so happy to hear that my father had been paying attention to the sermon for two weeks in a row.

But I love that. That grace is a net, not that my father has a warped sense of humour. Because I cling to the safety of the ground, but I yearn to venture into the high places. To take risks with my Christian walk. I want to leap out, holding the trapeze of faith, and see how far I can soar through the air-- perfectly safe in the knowledge that if I slip off, or miss my jump, or freeze up in terror, that I will land on a net of grace.

Do I dare leap higher? Trust in God more? Love my husband more deeply? Pray for my family more fervently? Be quick to encourage my classmates? Use lots of adverbs in my blogging, and see if anyone notices?

One of my favourite Christian songs is "If I Stand", by Rich Mullins. He said it so much better than I ever could:

So if I stand let me stand on the promise 

That you will pull me through 

And if I can't, let me fall on the grace 

That first brought me to You 

And if I sing let me sing for the joy 

That has born in me these songs 

And if I weep let it be as a man 

Who is longing for his home

So today, and this week, and this month, and this year: I want to stand. But if I fall, I can do so with confidence that God has provided a net.

Grace.

Trash to Treasure

So I was innocently perusing Twitter on Thursday & came across one of those "RT and we'll draw a random winner" things, from ClifBar. And this is what they were giving away:

Source.

Backstaged

I went to a volunteer training session a few days ago for the fine arts department at UT. They've been working to get a student contingent among their volunteer ushers for a while, so for the next two semesters I get to be part of it. I am really excited about this.

Stock photo; this is not from UT.

Part of that excitement comes from being near a stage again. I was in the drama club throughout my middle school and high school years, and while I am far from being an actress, I loved the backstage stuff. Building a set, moving it around, learning every moment of a play by heart... that's the only reason I could see for even going to school when I was a teenager. (My reputation preceded me, even then; I was so clumsy and fumble-fingered that when anything turned up broken, the directors automatically assumed it was me. The problem is that they were right six times out of four.)

A Part of Me

I'm going to be a jerk and openly declare that I'm irritated by the TA (hereafter known as Skinny Jeans-- I don't understand how she can breathe in those things) for my Creative Problem Solving class. I admit that the problem is me, not her; she's a normal grad student in her late 20s, but I have something hard-wired into my brain to be really irritated by people who are in a life stage that I recently left. I am amused by the freshmen who were still in preschool when I was their age, but someone so close in years to myself-- I have a harder time giggling at her foibles. See? I told you I was a jerk.

The Emerald Tablet

The Emerald Tablet, P.J. Hoover
The Forgotten Worlds, Book 1

First of all, this book is all the more exciting for me because I've met P.J. Hoover! Back last November, when the Princess of Unicorns was in town, we dropped by BookPeople and there was an author event going on... and Ms. Hoover was one of the authors. I would say that we chatted for a while, but the truth is the Unicorn Princess did all the talking and I just stood there looking dopey, at least until Ms. Hoover directed us to her blog-- ooh, that's the magical word! I couldn't get her books that day (this was before the new bookshelves-- there was no space!), but I requested it from the library in my reading frenzy over the Christmas break. I've now zoomed through the first two books in the trilogy (review of The Navel of the World coming next week), and will be reading The Necropolis this week.

Mild spoilers after the jump.

In My Mailbox

These are textbooks for my Pathos class, and I would not normally be that excited about new textbooks, but... look how pretty! They are brand-new! No curled pages or anything! I hardly ever get brand-new textbooks, so this is pretty exciting.

The cover is blurry; it's not the picture
quality. I have no idea what this is
about-- yet. But my instructor talks
about affect a lot.

This sounds promising... but I don't
know what it is about, either. Except
that Descartes was wrong about
something.

Let's Spend More Time Together

I mentioned last week that I have three rhetoric classes this semester, for which I am very grateful. And I just got another reason to be happy about that.

I don't remember where I got this
photo; it was in my blog archives.

One of the classes is Rhetoric of Cyberculture (the instructor mentioned on the first day of class that she could just call it "Rhetoric of Culture", but she's keeping the old name for nostalgia reasons), and one of our major assignments is a comparison project; I'm meant to find two social networking circles, participate actively for a month, then write a paper about it. Now it just happens, thanks to the wonderful world of writing Tweeters, that I'm already connected to one such community. And for my second, I've chosen Goodreads. (My instructor strongly urged against using the blogging community as my second, out of concern that I wouldn't give an impartial report-- and she's right.) Result: I'm ahead on my homework.

So, here I come! I've already been eagerly scouring Twitter to follow all the bloggers who I already read, and I'm really excited to join the conversation much more than I have up to this point. So, if you want to follow me on Twitter (and have me follow you in return, of course), just hit that cute little button in the sidebar & we'll be connected. And likewise for Goodreads; if you're there, let's be friends!

There's still time, though-- is there another social site that I'm missing out on?

One Another

Last Sunday we tried something new and went to the evening service, at which the topic for the sermon was the "One Another" passages.

There are over 50 of these in the New Testament, if Google is to be believed; such crucial parts of Christian living as "Love one another", "Encourage one another", "Pray for one another", and so on come from the One Another passages. It's no exaggeration to say that most of my favourite sermons, Bible studies, retreats, and so on are the ones that focus on One Another.

For all my crankiness and anti-social tendencies, the truth is I love people. I love spending time with people; talking, sharing, laughing, hanging out, whatever-- I love it. The only reason that I get anti-social from time to time is because I get overstimulated from being around people; social contact revs me up but also wears me out, so I have to take a break. And so I've gotten this reputation of being disinterested in others, but I assure you, nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, I probably could stand to get a hobby that doesn't involve me talking my friends' ears off each time we meet.

(Although now that I'm thinking about it, I'm not sure why I on the one hand love people, but on the other hand find a lot of people really irritating. Something to wonder about later.)

Anyway! Jesus created the church; he placed us in his community knowing that we would need each other for support, for comfort, and for help. And then he gave his people the rules for life in his house, including how we treat one another. Because we're a family, and rules help control the fun.

And so on this Sunday I encourage you to love your neighbour as yourself, even the really annoying ones. (That part is really just for me; I know my readers are all lovely people who are never annoyed by their neighbours!) And now, sharing time: Do you have a favourite verse? Quote? Direction to run when the annoying people are coming?

One Tonne Life

I was all set to yammer on about recycling today, but I'm afraid that will have to wait for another time.

I ran across a very cool experiment while doing some research for a project (yet another great thing about university-- I would never have found this if left to myself): One Tonne Life. It's kind along the lines of No Impact Man, really; the Lindell family have moved into a newly-constructed, climate-smart house, where they will live for six months. Some major brands, like Volvo and Siemens, have contributed to this project, the idea being (as I understand it) that they can both get their names associated with green living and also can give new, eco-friendly products a test run.

In Remembrance: 25 Years Later

I know for sure I've done a Challenger post before, but I can't find it. So much for my goal to avoid repetition; I imagine I'll say the same thing as last time. But after all, the feelings haven't changed, so perhaps some repetition is warranted.

Source. I had intended to find one of the nice posed mission
pics for this post, but when I ran across this one I liked it
too much to pass up. This is right before the famous shot of
them walking out to the shuttle, all smiles and waves.

Mug Shot Blogfest

erica and christy are hosting a blogfest today! We're all sharing pics of our favourite mug. This is mine:

I bought it on our most recent trip to Scotland. This mug won out over the one that read, "It wisnae me!" only because of its size; there were no mugs at work that were sufficiently large enough, in my opinion, for my massive daily serving of tea. (The toast rack in the background is nothing to do with this contest; I just like to take any opportunity to show off my toast rack, which I think is the cutest one ever.)

Pop by erica and christy's blog so you can see all the blogfest entries!

Finding Peggy

Finding Peggy: A Glasgow Childhood, Meg Henderson

Summary: Meg tells the story of growing up in a poor family in two of the "black spots" of Glasgow: Blackhill and Drumchapel. It's a delightful, if sad, memoir, telling of the joys and sorrows of a large, working-class family. When Meg's favourite aunt Peggy (of the title) died suddenly at age 36, when Meg was 11, life as Meg knew it came to an end as well as she suddenly had to take care of her bereaved mother, and as a coping mechanism, the extended family ceased to gather together as they had always done. Meg was suddenly alone, with no help for coping with her own grief. It was not until her own adulthood that she learned what had happened to her aunt and why the family was so unable to move through normal stages of grief.

A Giveaway!

I was really going to try not to do the post-twice-a-day thing in January. Alas, the time has gotten away from me.

So! Marieke, Rach & Tessa are having a Trilogy contest, and they'd be pleased as punch if you would enter. Here are the details, straight from Rach's blog:

We're happy, excited, and thrilled to announce our Trilogy Contest. Your chance to win one of a gigantic stack of amazingly awesome prizes.

And here they are*:

3 x query or synopsis (max. 2 pages) critiques (winner's choice)
3 x first 300 words critiques
3 x first 3 pages critiques
AND
3 x first 30 pages critiques

*For the picture book writers, I'll convert any of the above prizes into a picture book critique! And if you win a 30 page critique, I'll critique 3 of your picture book wips instead!!!

Rather have a book? We've thought about that too! If more than 50 people enter the Trilogy Contest, we'll share some of our favorites/dying to reads. 

So Marieke will give away a copy of... The Mockingbirds
Tessa will give away a copy of... Unearthly
And I will give away a copy of... Across The Universe

So skip on over to their blogs, fill out the form, and voilà! I wish you the best of luck. But not better luck than me... I wish you the second-best of luck! ;)

Teaser Tuesday

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, Seth Godin

"Imagine two classrooms with similar teachers. One has fifteen students; the other, thirty-two. Which group gets a better education?"


"Great leaders don't try to please everyone."





I'm reading this book on the recommendation of a friend, and I'm not very far into it. But so far, it's about leadership, looking at things differently, and recognising that the world is changing fast, so we need to change with it.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

New Semester. New Blog. New Classmates.

This semester, I have three rhetoric classes. Yipee! I'm loving it already. I also have two others: A linguistics/science class and a "signature" course for freshmen that is part of UT's core curriculum, and which I am required to take despite being 1) A transfer student, 2) A senior, and 3) 32 years old. More on that (the class, not my age) anon.

We Must Do This Right

Anyone who's been around here for a while has probably seen that I'm not one to take on serious topics with the blog. That's mostly because I think serious topics are best tackled in actual conversation, not virtual, and also because this blog serves as my brain's pressure release valve more often than not, and there is a lot more zany than serious rumbling around in there. But since I decided to start posting "Sunday thoughts" on Sundays, the goof meter has taken a dip. All that to say, this is a serious subject.

Our Sunday morning Bible class is currently studying James, and last week we spent pretty much the entire hour on this passage: "If a man enters your church wearing an expensive suit, and a street person wearing rags comes in right after him, and you say to the man in the suit, 'Sit here, sir; this is the best seat in the house!' and either ignore the street person or say, 'Better sit here on the back row,' haven't you segregated God's children and proved that you are judges who can't be trusted?" (James 2:2-4, The Message)

They're Called the Greatest Generation for a Reason

There's a little expression I've taken to using lately, that I'm sure Chad is getting tired of: "If my grandma can do it, so can I." This first came up on New Year's Day when we ran out of soap for the dishwasher. I was muttering about needing to go to Family Dollar to get some more, but then had an epiphany that I have soap for hand-washing my dishes sitting right there on the sink already. Ta-daa! No money or walk to the store needed (although I have no objections to walking to the store).

Stylish

Here's another first in the world of Su:

I can safely say I've never been called stylish before! Many thanks to Lisa @ First Draft and to Margo Kelly for passing this award on to me!

This one comes with rules, as so many do: Another seven things about myself. I would be tempted to say this whole blog is about myself and leave it at that, but this is my journal day, so here goes:

1. I'm 32 years old and I only just read Anne of Green Gables.

2. And Pride and Prejudice.

3. Ick alert: Once upon a very bored time, one of my friends stuck her pinky up her nose to see how far it would go, which prompted a contest. I won.

4. If I had it my way, all my lecturers at uni would be women.

5. I only leave my umbrella at home when it's raining.

6. Millet is my favourite grain ever.

7. If I had my wedding to do all over again, I would elope.

That should be sufficiently off-the-wall to keep everyone happy! (Or grossed out, as the case may be.)

I'm meant to pass this on to other bloggers, but every time I went to get a link to pass it on, it turned out that the would-be recipient already had an award this week. And really, I think all my readers are stylish! So you may take it with you if you like, or if you know a stylish blogger who needs an award.

What's your favourite grain?